“Story in Harlem Slang” by Zora Neale Hurston is written entirely in Harlemese. It contains a three-page appendix, at the end of the story, with the translated slang she used to aid the reader. Harlemese is used to describe things taking place in Harlem and to create a sense that Harlem is its own place, almost a country inside of a country for Blacks. During this time many Blacks believed that living in the North was much better than living in the Jim Crow consumed south. The idea that Zora Neale Hurston centers the story around is the idea that the North is not necessarily better than the South for blacks for various reasons like poverty and other hardships Blacks encountered by “Russian” or running to the North. “Story in Harlem Slang” begins with Jelly who is a pimp. A pimp in Zora Neale Hurston’s slang is a male prostitute. Jelly is all about pleasuring women in exchange for food, money and weed. Because pimping is not easy and it is hard for him to find food Jelly wakes up late to avoid “dirtying plates”. Jelly throws on his zoot suit and heads to the corner where he proceeds to find women to pleasure so he can feed himself and his desire for “scrap-iron” and “reefer” which are liquor and weed respectively. Jelly spots one of his “colleagues” on the street and thinks he can get some weed out of him if he brags about his success on the street correctly to him. His colleague is Sweet Back who is also a Harlem pimp. Sweet Back and Jelly compete with each other for women who bring them business. Jelly and Sweet Back go back and forth trying to outcompete each other. They go on about the women they have gotten with and the…...

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...Harlem
Dreams can be said to be something that drives us in life and are what motivates us. They are like goals that we set to achieve. There are three main factors of a dream, which areideas, visions andemotions.Ideas are thoughts that generate in the mind. Visions are anticipation of that which may come to be. Emotions are specific feelings that characterize a state of mind like happiness and anger. These three factors work together to determine our dream. A persons dream is always with them but sometimes it escapes the memory. When a dream is anticipated it leaves one excited. Good dreams can include, winning a lottery, getting a scholarship or going to college. In Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” he asks the readers, if dreams are put off throughout their lives or if they are lived up to. Most people don’t live up to their dreams and essentially it becomes deferred as Hughes describes, but they are never forgotten. However, in the long run, the overwhelming desire to achieve the dream takes over.
Some people don’t live out their dreams, due to the frustrations, traumas, and hardship that they encounter along the way, thus robbing them of their opportunities. Hughes states “Does it dry up like raisin in the sun?” Before a fruit dries up like a raisinin the sun, it isinitiallyjuicy and filled with life. Generally we like when fruits are fresh, because the vitamins are still retained and healthwise it is the appropriate nutrient our body needs. In a way dreams are like...

...“We are all sitting around the rail.” This is how our story begins. A story written by Walter Dean Myers.
We don’t get much information on our characters, but we have our narrator who through the story remains unknown. He is the one who narrates the story. My guesses would be that he is a black man in the middle of his twenties. He lives in the trouble end in Harlem where shootings probably are not uncommon. I would guess he is probably unemployed since he has the time to hang out on the rail outside Big Joe’s with his friends in the middle of the day.
In the story we also have Mary. Mary is a tenant in the building which gets shot at by the police. She is little bit better than all the others in Harlem because of her great job downtown. Mary’s dog gets shot by the police, because of the possibility of a psychopath in her apartment with an automatic weapon. She also gets a lot of damage in her place.
Other than those two, we have Pedro, Willie and Mr. Lynch, all friends with our narrator. We don’t get much information about them, other than Willie being a bit of a ‘know it all’ because of his age.
The setting of the story is off course Harlem, like I mentioned earlier. On 145th street, more specifically. It starts out just outside big Joe’s place, where the “gang” is hanging out talking. Probably a place they are used to hang out at. The area they live in, seems like a neighborhood where crime isn’t unusual. You can see that on page 2 where the narrator says: “I did......

...Slang, informal, nonstandard words and phrases, generally shorter lived
than the expressions of ordinary colloquial speech, and typically formed by
creative, often witty juxtapositions of words or images. Slang can be
contrasted with jargon (technical language of occupational or other groups) and
with argot or cant (secret vocabulary of underworld groups), but the
borderlines separating these categories from slang are greatly blurred, and
some writers use the terms cant,argot, and jargon in a general
way to include all the foregoing meanings.
Origins of slang
Slang tends to originate in subcultures within a society. Occupational groups
(for example, loggers, police, medical professionals, and computer specialists)
are prominent originators of both jargon and slang; other groups creating slang
include the armed forces, teenagers, racial minorities, ghetto residents, labor
unions, citizens-band radiobroadcasters, sports groups, drug addicts,
criminals, and even religious denominations (Episcopalians, for example,
produced spike, a High Church Anglican). Slang expressions often embody
attitudes and values of group members. They may thus contribute to a sense of
group identity and may convey to the listener information about the speaker's
background. Before an apt expression becomes slang, however, it must be widely
adopted by members of the subculture. At this point slang and jargon overlap
greatly. If the subculture has enough contact with the......

...Harlem Renaissance
At the turn of the twentieth century, not all Americans held equal chance at making a name for themselves. Unequally is the only term that appropriately describes the way African Americans were treated during this time. Although their ancestors had endured suppression and struggle for years, those African American men and women associated with the Harlem Renaissance era would come to find new hope for their race. These artists such as Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, although having differentiating views, both played major roles in uplifting the black culture. I was responsible for researching these two writers, and I will show how they made giants steps for African Americans while establishing a place in American Literature forever.
After consulting my the textbook, I was able to find an article in which the story of an African American soldier from World War I was told. A Blakely, GA relative, Wilbur Little was lynched by a group of white men after returning from the war. He was slain simply because he wore his uniform in public after being threatened not to previously. Instances like this one involving Wilbur Little are what inspired the writers of the Harlem Renaissance era (Davis 477). Years of racism pushed the black culture into a corner that must have seemed dooming for many, but as the Great Migration ensued hope was restored in the hearts African Americans. Blacks during the early 1900’s caught trains northbound in hope of freedom and......

...The Harlem Renaissance's Impact on American Literature
The Harlem Renaissance also known as the "New Negro Movement," was a cultural movement that spanned in the 1920's to the mid 1930's. It was a time in history that displayed the unique culture of African American expression, through literature, art, music, and dance. This African American culture grew out of Harlem, New York and symbolized freedom from the oppression of slavery. It was described as the spiritual coming of age in which African Americans had a chance to express their creativity. The Harlem Renaissance is noted as being a literary movement were African Americans could celebrate their heritage and reveal the truth about their life and the first time their literature was taken seriously by critics and publishers.
The birth of the Harlem Renaissance came out of Harlem, New York in the early 1920's, "it was a time for a cultural celebration. African Americans had endured centuries of slavery and the struggle for abolition." (U.S History, 2008) It is described as racial pride and an intense desire for equality. It represented a time by the end of the war in 1919 where African Americans was going to be much more aggressive than their prewar brothers. Harlem was considered the capital of the black world, because it attracted thousands of blacks from the South and the West indies. It provided economic and education for African American artist. In Harlem, people demanded respect from those who continued to keep......

...|
Poetry & The Harlem Renaissance |
Hum 112: Professor Jocelyn Thornton |
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Tara Umstead |
8/24/2014 |
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The dictionary defines Renaissance as A rebirth or revival. The Harlem Renaissance was started in the mid 1920’s. It was a time of renewal and revival for African Americans. The Harlem Renaissance ushered slavery from the minds of African Americans alike. Their spirit was renewed culturally through art, music, and poetry. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans migrated North during World War I, because of the shortage of laborers. This migration brought a very diverse mix of cultures from all around. Harlem was full of life 24hrs a day. Jazz clubs and dancing even alcohol was secretly being served. The city was filled with African Americans looking to release all the troubles from the many years of slavery. The nightlife was also enjoyed immensely by upper class white people. New forms of music were born during the Harlem Renaissance. Blues was introduced and the love of Jazz was heightened. Life and living greatly inspired the literature works of this time. As Black Americans, started rebuilding their lives, they still portrayed a sense of self consciousness, self-doubt and didn’t value themselves as true Americans. Before the Harlem Renaissance W. E. B. Du Bois, wrote The Souls of Black Folk. This literary work of art explained the double-consciousness of African Americans. Double-consciousness is the sense of always looking at......

...JIMENEZ, Isabela P. ENG 1
1AD-7 Ms. Claustro
Filipinos have so much slang words or colloquial terms or sometimes we call it “salitang kalye”. It may be said and understood by many especially the teenagers because most of it started on the social networking sites or through text messaging or from the local TV shows. I honestly like these colloquial words because it shows how Filipino people are so creative in forming such new words that only the Filipinos understand. An example would be the phrase “Rak na” or sometimes “Rak na ituu”. I tried to search for its meaning and foreign people on the http://ph.answers.yahoo.com ask if it’s a Thai or a Filipino word. A Filipino answered his question saying “RaK na Itu, is a Filipino (slang) sentence meaning "Let's Rock This [to heighten the mood in music], Let's Do This [term], Roam And Kill [for gaming]", usually being used as a term when you and your friends have thought of doing something that can attain the goal of the majority of the group, such as happiness, a successful clash [for gaming], etc.” What the guy said is actually what it really means for me except for its meaning in gaming because I don’t play games. .”. I first heard it from my high school friends and I didn’t even asked what it means since I got it easily. I sometimes say it even up to now especially when I have to do something. I barely say it at home but I sometimes say it when I converse with my group of friends....

...JIMENEZ, Isabela P. ENG 1
1AD-7 Ms. Claustro
Filipinos have so much slang words or colloquial terms or sometimes we call it “salitang kalye”. It may be said and understood by many especially the teenagers because most of it started on the social networking sites or through text messaging or from the local TV shows. I honestly like these colloquial words because it shows how Filipino people are so creative in forming such new words that only the Filipinos understand. An example would be the phrase “Rak na” or sometimes “Rak na ituu”. I tried to search for its meaning and foreign people on the http://ph.answers.yahoo.com ask if it’s a Thai or a Filipino word. A Filipino answered his question saying “RaK na Itu, is a Filipino (slang) sentence meaning "Let's Rock This [to heighten the mood in music], Let's Do This [term], Roam And Kill [for gaming]", usually being used as a term when you and your friends have thought of doing something that can attain the goal of the majority of the group, such as happiness, a successful clash [for gaming], etc.” What the guy said is actually what it really means for me except for its meaning in gaming because I don’t play games. .”. I first heard it from my high school friends and I didn’t even asked what it means since I got it easily. I sometimes say it even up to now especially when I have to do something. I barely say it at home but I sometimes say it when I converse with my group of friends....

...In the beginning of 1950’s, African American were under the straggle of civil-rights movement. Harlem is one of highlighted cities related to the movement. I, personally, interpreted the poem “Harlem” expressed the will that they never gave up to achieve it, and the distress that they had a hard time to attain it for a long time.
The author of the poem “Langston Hughes” started the poem as “What happens to a dream deferred?” In this context, ‘Dream’ means ‘civil rights’ for African American people. They made an action to get the fundamental rights for a long time until then. However, it was definitely difficult to achieve. In this situation, the author asked the stability of the value of the dream which they were seeking for a large number of years.
The first sentence “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” is suggesting the possibility that due to the passing of time the value of dream becomes more concentrated as a grape turns to a raisin. On the other hand, the next “Or fester like a sore--- And then run?” means the opposite, which is the negative aspect such as the meaning that the value of dream was lost because of elapse.
Following “Does it stink like rotten meat?” has the negative nuance as the last sentence, while “Or crust and sugar over--- like a syrupy sweet” is the same meaning as the “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” The author is asking whether the value of dream, which is civil rights, is easily changeable or not, repeatedly mentioning the...

...Harlem Renaissance
Strayer University
Humanities 112
Professor Renee Pistone
November 30, 2014
Harlem renaissance poetry comprises of poems composed in the 1920s by poets such as Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Sterling Brown. All these poets had different items illustrated in their poems, though they all pointed the oppression of the minority race in America, and their fight to achieve freedom. The focus of this essay is to analyze poems by two different poets during the Harlem Renaissance period, describing the role played by each author in this period.
The poems to be analyzed are If We Must Die by Claude McKay and Let America be America Again by Langston Hughes. These two poems pass different messages and show the different wishes of the two poets. McKay and Hughes each contributed to the Harlem Renaissance poetry in varying ways.
Hughes was a well-known artist who wrote essays, short stories, poems, and children’s books. He used his poetry to celebrate the African American community and tried to capture the life of the African Americans in his work. His major focus is on dreams, and he gives suggestions of what happens when dreams are ignored and postponed. He, therefore, played a role in airing the dreams of the black Americans who lived in Harlem, and how these dreams were shattered (Bloom, 2004). His poetry is a way of showing that the black Americans had dreams, which if they did not come true would......

...Langston Hughes’ “Harlem: A Dream Deferred”
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten mean?
Or crust and sugar over-
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
______________________________________________________________________________
Trevor B. Taylor
A Dream Deferred, The Heartbeat of Harlem
For the residents of Harlem, until the later half of the twentieth century, “wait” is all they ever heard. Wait! Wait for the laws to change before you can fulfill your destiny. Wait, until you’re allowed to go to college. If any of the people of Harlem were a shining gem just waiting to be polished, it might not ever happen, or it would have had to of been postponed. Because the residents of Harlem had black skin, their dreams were deferred. L. Hughes shines light on the minds of Harlem past and everyone else’s, who’ve experienced a dream that never came true or hasn’t yet. He effectively uses similes, metaphors, and rhetorical questions to express how he feels about a dream being postponed.
The “dream” is a goal in life, not experienced while sleeping. an expected goal. The poem, in its’ current form leaves the dream up to the reader. But the poem was originally titled “Harlem”. Hughes since then gave this title to another one of his poems that more clearly states was happening there. That poem in black ink, clearly......

...Harlem Renaissance was a time of explosive culture and growth in the black community. During this time in the 1920s and 30s, it was not only the birth place of jazz but also we heard voices of the African American Authors who were taken serious by their white connects for the first time in history. It focused on portraying black culture and life in the ghetto. And it gave the African American Culture uniqueness within literature and art.
Harlem Renaissance was an evident racial pride that symbolized the melodic theme of the New Negro. New Negro challenged the penetrating racial discrimination to encourage socialistic help of art and literature.
As to be significant in the Harlem Renaissance the writers used poetry to present the African American experiences. Grabbing the attention between both black and white readers around the world. One Poet that set that bar really was Langston Hughes he was one of the most popular black poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes was great at his job with more diversity in his choice of writings. He had written Plays, Novels, Poems, and Short Stories, Most of his writings were the real situations that really happened in black cultures. Movies were highly looked up upon in the Harlem Renaissance. D.W. Griffith directed “The Birth of a Nation” the film was over African Americans directors who countered negative stereotypes promoted in majority of the mainstream movies. Then released films in The Harlem Renaissance showcased the struggle of......

...The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement started at the end of World War I, but only began to get recognized around 1924. The Harlem Renaissance was made up of chiefly writers and was considered a phenomenon. This movement started at a time when racism was still at large.
African Americans had to deal with the KKK and other racial prejudices in society. The Harlem Renaissance was significant because it was the first time African Americans expressed their views on racism and their self-love for one another, using lyrical styles that was never seen before in African American writing. Two of the most prominent poets of the time were Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes.
The Harlem Renaissance happened fifty seven years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Previously, African Americans didn’t have much education or a chance to make their mark in the literary world. They didn’t have much of a chance because they were still looked upon as inferior. They were also thought not to have a distinct cultural heritage. The United States got involved in World War I in the year 1917. At that time, race riots were happening and lynchings were frequent. After World War I ended in 1918, African Americans started coming to the North hoping to escape the racist treatment in the South. Unfortunately, life in the North wasn’t that much greater. In the South, more and more race riots occurred and many black people were beaten and killed-- this was known as “Red Summer”......

...Harlem
In the play, “Dutchman and The Slave” by Imamu Amiri Baraka, there is a lot of manipulation and also a clear struggle for power. In addition to Baraka’s play, the short stories “Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, and “Harlem” by Langston Hughes they also illustrate the struggle of power and how society of that era were manipulating the minds of Africa Americans into believing that their dreams weren’t worth anything.
Imamu Amiri Baraka introduces Lula, clearly a bipolar racist. Lula has a unknown problem witnessing African Americans strive towards a dream, that she feels they don’t deserve. Her motives throughout the book/movie were to become superior or have power by manipulating young African American men. The way Lula behaved was sure to get a rise out of anyone with some sort of sanity. Shirley Jackson also showed the power role by introducing her character in “Lottery”. Mr. Summers was not only manipulating, but he applies a fearsome amount of power over the village, power that seems to have been assigned to him at random. Much like Lula, Mr. Summers now has complete control in determining who dies.
The villagers show a type of blind-trust in Mr. Summers which the author never illustrates why their trust is so strong. The village just seems to accept the ritual without a thought of change. That trust was also shown in the Dutchman, how Clay trusted Lula by sharing inviting conversation, and kind gestures. Lula was symbolized in Dutchman as the white devil.......

...The Harlem Renaissance
The end of World War I set up conditions for a new culture to emerge. Due to the abundance of jobs the war created, many African-Americans moved to the northern cities. In fact, so many of them moved up north, they created strong African-American communities, including Harlem in New York City. During the 1920’s, Harlem became the Mecca of Black culture and was home to many talented individuals from all fields. Roughly lasting from the end of World War I to the stock market crash in 1929, the Harlem Renaissance was the time period in which black literature was first taken seriously and published by mainstream companies. Even though the Harlem Renaissance focused mainly on literature, it is also strongly related to the advances in African-American music, art and politics of the 1920’s. Although there were many themes associated with the works of the Harlem Renaissance, the four topics of interest that were focused on were, a longing for Africa, the beauty of African-Americans, the racism of the time and demonstrating that they too experienced universal concepts.
Many African-Americans of the time began wondering about their ancestral past, prior to slavery, and looked to Africa for inspiration. Many African-Americans saw Africa as their original homeland and a place where blacks where not discriminated and oppressed. In the poem “Heritage,” Countie Cullen wrote “What is Africa to Me?,” a common question African-Americans were asking at the time. He......